From top left, clockwise: Kenny Chesney, Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker and Eli Young Band are a few of the performers expected at Party for a Cause April 17 and 18. (DMN files)

Before the televised ACM Awards take place in Arlington on April 19, its organizers want to party. Its Party for a Cause Festival: 50 Years of Music & Memories on April 17 and 18 at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park in Arlington will feature a who’s who of country music names, as proven by the lineup released today.

Part of the reason why this one-day televised event has sprouted into a several-day, multi-event mega-fest is because it’s the 50th anniversary of the ACM Awards. The academy chose AT&T Stadium in Arlington to host the one-time weekend. The show usually takes place in Las Vegas.

Other performers such as Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Hunter Hayes and Little Big Town will perform at separate event April 17 – a high-dollar gala taking place in Dallas and Fort Worth simultaneously. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will be the hosts of both parties.

The weekend finishes with the live telecast of the ACM Awards on April 19.

Ticket packages for events April 17, 18 and 19 were sold out, but some are now available again. (They’ll go quickly.)

At the April 17 and 18 Party for a Cause, portions will be filmed for a two-hour special called “ACM Presents: Superstar Duets!,” airing May 15 on CBS. The evening performers will be paired up, though we don’t know who’s singing with whom just yet. Additional Party for a Cause performers will be announced soon, according to a press release.

In addition to concerts, Party for a Cause will have a “country marketplace” with food trucks.

Fans of hometown guy Luke Wade should know he’s working on new music now.

Eyes will be on Alabama this weekend when big-name performers celebrate the marches 50 years ago that championed black Americans’ voting rights.

In honor of those Selma to Montgomery marches, concerts have sprouted up in Selma and in Montgomery. Budding Fort Worth musician and former The Voice finalist Luke Wade will be one of many star-studded performers at the events.

Wade will open for soul singer Patti LaBelle at a concert at Alabama State University in Montgomery on Saturday, March 7.

The same night and 50 miles away, a concert in Selma will feature Lady Gaga, R. Kelly and more. Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are expected to be in attendance, according to TV station WSFA.

For Wade, being chosen to participate in the concert in Montgomery is an honor.

“Anytime I get an opportunity to share the stage with someone like [Patti LaBelle], it makes me feel like I’m part of music history,” he says.

His soul sound will make him a fitting opening act. In his time on The Voice, he regularly took mainstream songs and doused them with his unique brand of soul. His cover of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” is a good example, and he plans to perform that song during the March 7 gig, among other covers and originals.

Find info about Wade and LaBelle’s March 7 concert in Montgomery here. Find info about Lady Gaga’s March 7 concert in Selma here.

TV show Glee parodied his performance in its latest episode, letting a stand-in Sam sing and dance with hilarious fanfare. The only thing missing from the show was Sam himself. (Glee featured the superintendent’s nephew, “Myron.”)

But let’s face it, this is the Myron formerly known as Dallas’ Sam Horowitz, bedazzled dance suit and all. He even offers to pay the glee club $20,000 to be his bar mitzvah opening act.

Here’s the best part of the episode:

It’s funny, it’s cheeky, and Sam apparently loved it. But next time, Glee? Get Sam to play himself.

Musician Jack White hasn’t performed in the North Texas area in more than five years. Here, he rocks out at the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York.

The concert organizers at Billy Bob’s Texas don’t know Jack – Jack White, that is – but they’re poised to woo him to the Fort Worth honky tonk if they can sell enough tickets for a show that is so far just a twinkle on their calendars.

[UPDATE at 11 a.m. March 9: The campaign “tilted,” which means that all 2,750 tickets are now snatched up via an online crowdsourcer called tilt.com. Billy Bob’s had a month to complete the campaign, but it seemed a cinch in just six days.

Selling nearly 3,000 tickets doesn’t guarantee a show, however: Next step for Billy Bob’s is to try to get a concert on the books with White’s management group. “We’re really motivated to try to make this happen,” says Billy Bob’s Director of Marketing Chris Spinks.]

And what if the show doesn’t happen? Ticketholders will get their money back, Spinks says.

White, the beloved musician behind his latest genre-bending album Lazaretto, has never played Billy Bob’s. The venue is known mostly for boot-scootin’ music from big names such as Martina McBride and Clint Black – though it plays host to plenty of shows outside the country genre. Styx performed there two days ago, for instance.

White has not performed in the Dallas area in the past five years, according to Dallas Morning News archives. His side projects the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather performed at House of Blues in Dallas in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

White’s many fans might agree it’s time to bring him back to D-FW, and the campaign will prove whether they’ll put their money on it.

“We just wanted to show Jack that the people of Fort Worth and Dallas and its region – or even the state of Texas – love Jack and want him to know that we want him here,” says Spinks. Why not try it, he says?

So: Will Billy Bob’s honor the artist and crew’s requests, no matter what?

Of course, Spinks says. “Whatever is asked will be honored and remain confidential, per all of our shows,” he says. “We do this on a day-to-day basis, and artist confidentiality and is one of our No. 1 priorities, always.” That should make White happy, as he black-listed the Oklahoma venue after the yes-guac, no-bananas contract was published publicly.

If White and his crew agree to a Billy Bob’s show, Spinks expects the concert to be in “winter 2015-2016.”

These moms rap and dance about their smelly kids in a parody called 'Two Day Funk.'

If Weird Al can do parodies, so, too, can a handful of busy moms. A group of Texas friends who call themselves Laughing Moms took on Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s mega hit “Uptown Funk” and recast it as their own smelly bath-time version called “Two Day Funk.”

Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Wylie.

Laughing Moms is the side project of moms Alisha Merrick, from McKinney, and Eden Morris, from Spring, Texas. They’ve also given the mommy treatment to several other tunes, such as Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” remade as “I Just Can’t Clean This Place” — which has 1.6 million views on YouTube.

No song is safe, they warn.

Ellen DeGeneres’ camp seems to have taken notice of the moms’ latest vid, and “Two Day Funk” is now posted to Ellen’s site and available for “up” votes. (The moms aren’t sure what happens if it’s voted “up” enough times. “Our big fat dream would be to end up on her show,” Merrick says via email. “But for now, it’s just fun to even have our video on a website with her name on it.”)

Being a mom while making occasional music videos can be amusing, says Merrick, a married mom with three girls. “All the fancy heels you see walking at the beginning of the video had a hard time dancing on the grass,” she says. “The heels kept sinking in and causing problems while trying to dance and look cool.”

They also had to take regular breaks from filming “Two Day Funk,” as three of the four moms in the video have nursing babies.

The point of Laughing Moms is to tell other moms they’re not alone, Merrick says. “We know motherhood is the most amazing thing ever, but as with anything worthwhile in life, it also comes with trials and challenges. We would much rather laugh our way through those challenges than cry, and [we] hope we can help other moms do the same.”

The station has been temporarily renamed for Laura Diosdado, a McKinney teen who died Feb. 19 from Cystic Fibrosis.

“As our hearts break, we know that Laura would want us to keep fighting to find a cure. Please join us as we again change the station to 106.1 LAURA FM to honor Laura’s legacy,” reads a blog post explaining the name change.

The station is attempting to raise $30,000 in her name via an online fundraiser. Kiss FM has renamed the station for Laura in the past, according to WFAA. This time around, the moniker honors Laura’s life and seeks funds to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Take note of the required dress code: bright-colored shirt (or Hawaiian shirt, if you have it), shorts, flip flops. With weather in the 20s in Dallas right now, warm weather attire sure sounds good.

News of the long-rumored Jimmy Buffett concert in Frisco arrived at just the right time, on a snow day, when many North Texans are screaming “boat drinks.” Y’know, something to keep us all warm.

The annual parking lot party in Frisco, which is considered to be one of the best tailgates among roadtripping Parrotheads, will be May 30 at Toyota Stadium.

Finally! A place to wear your parrot hat. These fans were on their way to the concert last year in Frisco.

Huey Lewis and the News will open the show, according to an advertisement on NBC late Monday night. So far, AEGLive has not released extended information about the concert, but the NBC ad says tickets are on sale now for American Express cardholders.

I’ve been one of the wacky land-lubbers who staked out a spot in the parking lot more than 24 hours before Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band took the stage. I’ve danced in my flip flops with strangers and shared frozen margaritas with new buddies wearing coconut bras.

Rules concerning tailgating will be released by Toyota Stadium March 2, but here’s hoping fin-heads can keep searching for their lost shaker of salt in what’s become one of Frisco’s most spirited outdoor events.

Buffett’s Workin’ n’ Playin’ Tour takes him to cities such as Key West, Florida; New Orleans; Houston; Chicago and LA, among others. Fans of Buffett’s song “He Went to Paris” will likely be glad to hear Buffett will in fact be in Paris this tour — on September 26 and 27 — which was just announced.

Hotels for the nearby Comfort Suites in Frisco are already sold out. Word travels fast on the coconut telegraph.

[UPDATED at 10:10 a.m. March 2: Like in years past, tailgating will be allowed at Toyota Stadium before the Buffett concert. Those who want to come early for a long weekend can park beginning at 9 a.m. Friday, May 29 and can stay until 10 a.m. Sunday, May 31. To reserve a spot, fill out this form and email it to concertparking@fcdallas.com. Call 469-365-0036 with questions.

Parking Friday through Sunday costs $100 for a car or as much as $1,120 for an RV. See prices here.

The women standing in front of the Back 9's monster truck would likely need a small ladder to get into this tall vehicle. The truck was used for advertising and charity purposes and was not a regularly-driven vehicle.

A monster truck that stands 11 feet tall was not, in fact, made for off-roading.

Police confirm the truck was stolen early Friday from a parking lot in Plano and driven back into thick brush in an area of DeSoto, where it was dumped with a broken wheel. The truck is worth $100,000 to $150,000.

Police are looking for suspects, and if found, that person or persons could face a second-degree felony charge because the vehicle is worth more than $100,000. A second-degree felony charge could come with two to 20 years in jail.

The truck was found in a wooded area in DeSoto, its front wheel wrecked.

But how did someone steal this giant vehicle in the first place, then get away without being spotted? Police have looked at surveillance video and are testing the truck for evidence, says David Tilley, city of Plano public information officer.

“It’s not often you see an 11-foot truck driving down the roadway,” he says. They hope to get more tips about this easy-to-spot truck’s whereabouts in the wee hours of Friday morning.

Dallas Hale, co-owner of the vehicle and also co-owner of Addison bar the Back 9 and the restaurant Shell Shack, says the thief or thieves stole about $20,000 worth of stereo equipment. Given the damage to the wheel, he believes the person who was driving the car probably didn’t know how difficult it is to operate.

“It was not made for four-wheeling; it was made for looks,” Hale says.

It was driven so far back in the woods that Hale drove by the area eight times based on a tip from someone who called the Back 9 bar before he spotted the electric blue and black truck.

The parking lot it was stolen from is the site of Hale and his partner Matt Saba’s second Shell Shack restaurant, at W. Park Boulevard and the Dallas North Tollway in Plano. The truck was parked there to draw attention to the new restaurant, slated to open next month.

“Matt and I never thought in a million years somebody would be able to steal it. It’s such a big piece. It’s so hard to drive,” Hale says. “We were real surprised somebody took it, then got it all the way to DeSoto.”

They’re getting estimates this week to see how much it will cost to repair the vehicle.

Dreary weather didn't keep the kids from visiting the Wienermobile. It'll be back out on Saturday and Sunday in Dallas.

You call it the Wienermobile, “Joey Bologna” Greenstein calls it his Lamborweenie.

Kids flocked to the Wienermobile on Friday, such as Nehemiah, 19 months, and Nicodemus, 10 (on left), and Elijah, 4, and Jaden, 6 (on right).

Greenstein and his hot-doggin’ partner Astrid “Astridogger” Villegas are halfway through their year-long tour of the country driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and they’re currently in Dallas. They pass out hundreds of weenie whistles a day, and on Friday in Pleasant Grove, they flew through 300.

Off the clock, the Wienermobile is their personal vehicle, which means they park it at movie theaters and restaurants all around town. (So keep an eye out!) The Wienermobile was parked outside the Perot Museum this week, for instance, when they ran in to check out the exhibits.

Take a look inside the Wienermobile and ketchup on the life of a cross-country hot rod.

If you go to the ACM Awards on April 19 (or watch it live on CBS), Blake Shelton, on left, and Luke Bryan will be the co-hosts.

The “sold out” Academy of Country Music Awards events April 17-19 aren’t sold out anymore.

The academy announced that extra tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 20 for a package including two events over three days: Party for a Cause, which features a few dozen country musicians performing inside and outside Globe Life Park in Arlington on April 17 and 18; and the big to-do, the ACM televised awards show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on April 19.

The tickets went quickly the first time around — in 18 minutes, in fact, marking the fastest sell-out in ACM history. You can bet these new seats won’t last long, either.

Tickets range from $145-$585 and will go on sale via ticketmaster.com. VIP packages (for a separate price) are also available; call 817-892-4400.

Country musicians Trisha Yearwood and husband Garth Brooks will bring some star power to the ACM Awards' fundraising gala on April 17 in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Add one more event to the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards’ jam-packed weekend.

Two nights before the ACM Awards are hosted at AT&T Stadium and broadcast to your living room couch on CBS April 19, the academy will host a fundraising gala called ACM Lifting Lives. The event consists of two simultaneous country shows — one at the Omni Dallas Hotel featuring Lady Antebellum and Hunter Hayes; and one at the Fort Worth Zoo with Keith Urban and Little Big Town.

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will co-host both events and alternate between venues.

Brooks’ appearance might be enough to motivate country music fans to purchase a ticket, as he temporarily retired from music in the 2000s. Brooks hasn’t played an open-to-the-public concert in the D-FW area since 2007, according to DMN records. (That event cost $5,000 for a table of 10.) Brooks is back on tour this year and so far none of the concert dates are in Texas.

Garth and Trisha plus Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Hayes and Urban make these two events some of country music’s hottest tickets in town.

Are they also the most expensive tickets in town? They start at $1,250. Interested parties can email gala@acmcountry.com for info.

A ticket to the “One Night, Two Cities, All Music” gala on April 17 includes cocktails, dinner, an auction and, of course, live musical performances. Some of the funds will be donated to charities based in Texas, including Children’s Health of Dallas, Cook Children’s of Fort Worth and Brooks’ charity, Teammates for Kids.

Also taking place in North Texas on ACM Awards weekend is a two-day concert at Globe Life Park in Arlington called Party for a Cause, which The Dallas Morning News has already reported. Thirty country musicians will perform inside and outside the stadium on April 17 and 18.

In front of a live audience, Veronica Hernandez will stick a 14-inch blade down her throat at 9 months pregnant.

Veronica "Jai Le Bait" Hernandez has been sword swallowing for two and a half years. Here she is, performing just a few weeks before her son is born.

“It’s hard enough being a pregnant woman who already has gone through morning sickness,” says Hernandez, who goes by the stage name Jai Le Bait. She’ll activate those gag reflexes once more as she slowly puts a sword down her throat at World Sword Swallower’s Day in Grand Prairie on Feb. 28.

Could that be dangerous to the baby, I had to wonder? “The human body is awesome,” says the Dallas mom. “This is my one opportunity to show off what my body is capable of doing pregnant. [Let's] just hope my son isn’t born with a pierced ear!”

Jai Le Bait is part of a very small fraternity of sword swallowers. In fact, only a few dozen people participate in this style of circus performance art worldwide, and only 15 percent of those are women, says Dan Meyer, president of Sword Swallowers Association International.

It isn’t a trick, either: The performers at Ripley’s Believe It or Not on Feb. 28 are actually swallowing swords. Meyer estimates it took him about 13,000 tries over four years before he successfully swallowed his first sword.

Gulp!

Performers at World Sword Swallower’s Day honor those who have died from their injuries, like Dallas’ Rosemary Puente, who died in 1968 from a 1/4 inch cut at the age of 25, Meyer says. He reports that sword swallowing has resulted in at least 29 deaths.

The Dallas Morning News: Is sword swallowing considered magic?Frankie Stiletto: Sword swallowing is not a trick; it is not magic in any way. [The sword] enters the mouth, goes down the throat, past the voice box, passes by the epiglottis.

… As it travels down further into your chest, [it] nudges the heart to the side slightly. We can, for example, feel our heartbeat on the sword.

[Then] it enters through the stomach and finds its resting spot in the stomach. … It is absolutely not a trick.

Whoa. So when did you decide this was something you’d like to try?I have always been very different, even among circus freaks. I happen to know someone who has been doing sword swallowing for about 20 years, and he agreed to teach me.

The reason I keep doing it is, believe it or not, now that my body is used to it, it’s very calming.

Nothing forces you to live in the present moment quite like a sword going down your throat. Letting your mind wander in that situation could be fatal.

What does it take to be successful?
[I had to] do a lot of other mind-body training before I touched the sword. It is very surreal the first time you swallow a sword: You have to train [your body] to do all these things it’s not supposed to do.

The learning process is a long and grueling one. Not everyone has the stomach for it, so to speak. It takes a lot of determination.

How often do you swallow swords?
I practice every day. I don’t perform every day, but I practice every day. It’s essential.

Can it cut the insides of your body?
It absolutely can happen, and that’s why it’s one of the most dangerous things people can do. … Don’t try it at home, don’t try it at all. Let us be the crazy ones.

Staying calm in front of a boisterous audience sounds difficult, especially given the task. How do you concentrate?
I am a performer, so that sort of interaction is something I enjoy. … Even in the middle of a large audience, when you have a sword down your throat, you have to be very present in that moment.

Is pulling the sword out just as grueling?
It’s a different set of muscles … It is not as difficult to remove as it is to swallow. But you’re definitely fighting back your gag reflexes the entire time. It’s still something that’s counterintuitive to your body.

—

You can see Frankie Stiletto, Jai Le Bait and others swallow swords at an event that begins at 1:30 p.m. Feb 28 at Ripley’s Believe It or Not, 601 East Palace Parkway in Grand Prairie. The “official swallow” takes place during the show at 2:28 p.m., in honor of the 2/28/15 date.

DeAndre Upshaw, center left, said he was denied access to Kung Fu Saloon in 2014 because of the shoes he was wearing. He launched a complaint with the city of Dallas because he believed he was being discriminated against because of his race.

Dallas resident DeAndre Upshaw received a letter via certified mail over the weekend. To Upshaw, it was a very important document: The letter was written apology from Kung Fu Saloon, part of a requirement from the city of Dallas after Upshaw filed a complaint that the Uptown bar had discriminated against him because of his race.

“We know you have complained about your treatment at Kung Fu Saloon last year. We strive to ensure that Kung Fu Saloon is a gathering place for a diverse crowd in the Dallas bar scene. We do not have a policy of denying anyone entry to Kung Fu Saloon based on race or ethnicity. We are always at work to provide a fun, safe and welcoming atmosphere to anyone, in keeping with our policies.

“On behalf of Kung Fu Saloon, we apologize that you were denied admission to Kung Fu Saloon on the evening in question. We are constantly striving to be a welcome place and working to ensure as many people as possible can have a great time at Kung Fu Saloon. Just as our manager reached out to you shortly after the event, we again invite you to come have a drink with us.”

Upshaw told The Dallas Morning News on Feb. 9 that he believes the complaint he made against the bar was taken seriously by the city. Legally, the case is closed. Emotionally, Upshaw says it’s closed, too.

He hopes Dallas residents will speak up in the future if they believe they’re being unfairly treated.

Upshaw did not say whether he’d take Kung Fu up on its invitation for a drink.

Hozier is one of many names announced to perform at the April 25 Edgefest at Toyota Stadium in Frisco. Edgefest is KDGE-FM 102.1 The Edge’s yearly fest. (Last year, The Edge had now-Album of the Year winner Beck, along with the Avett Brothers, Bastille and, again, New Politics, among others.)

At this year’s fest, Hozier will be joined by punk band the Offspring, alt-rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse, and DJ Girl Talk, among others. Here’s the full list:

On left, a photo of Alex Lee bagging groceries at Target went viral in November 2014. Alex attracted (on right) national interest from 'Ellen' and 'The New York Times.'

You haven’t seen the last of Alex from Target.

Frisco teenager Alex Lee, who stumbled upon Internet stardom after a photo of him bagging groceries at Target swept the web last fall, is using his few days of fame to kick-start a singing career.

When that famous photo of Alex went viral last year, #alexfromtarget appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and spawned hundreds of thousands of new Twitter followers in a matter of hours.

“You guys have been wondering what I have been doing with my life,” he says in a YouTube video Alex posted on Feb. 7. (If you have not been wondering, it’s fair to say some of his very passionate fans have been.) “I have not been bagging groceries.”

He’s seemingly starting his own Alex Lee empire, according to the video: He’s going on tour — the DigiTour, which runs in February and March but does not touch down in Dallas; he’s launching a clothing line; he’ll appear in a music video; he’s making his own music; and he’ll act in a non-fiction movie about a kid with cystic fibrosis.

Make it a great weekend in Dallas-Fort Worth! Below are the best things to do this weekend. Click on the hyperlinks to learn more about each event.

If you’ve got a sweetheart: It might be too late to make dinner reservations at some of the area’s finest dining rooms. So hit up a place that doesn’t call for reservations at all, like Twisted Root. Then save some green at Klyde Warren Park Saturday night at a free swing concert.

Kung Fu Saloon is a bar with arcade games located on a bustling corner of Uptown Dallas.

After complaints of racism surfaced against Uptown Dallas bar Kung Fu Saloon in mid-2014, the case is now closed.

Kung Fu reps entered two “no contest” pleas on Jan. 26 related, in part, to allegations from Dallas resident DeAndre Upshaw, who said he was turned away at the bar in May because a bouncer said his Converse sneakers violated the bar’s dress code. Upshaw, a black man, told The Dallas Morning News in May that his white, female friend was wearing the same Converse sneakers and was granted admittance into the bar that night.

The bar did not have a dress code posted publicly at the time of Upshaw’s incident. Upshaw believes he was turned away because he’s black. Kung Fu said it does not deny entry “based upon race, ethnicity, gender, religion or any other status,” according to a statement from the bar on May 20.

Upshaw and others filed formal complaints against the bar, and City Manager A.C. Gonzales promised to investigate Kung Fu Saloon “very aggressively.” The investigation considered Kung Fu’s potential violation of Section 3l-3(b)(2) of the Dallas City Code, which relates to unlawfully refusing admission to an establishment because of dress or grooming.

The city has concluded its investigation with Kung Fu Saloon, a city spokeswoman confirmed Monday morning.

At the time of the incident, Upshaw launched a social media campaign urging others to share #NoKungFuDallas. The city reiterated its commitment to the investigation: “Discrimination is unacceptable,” said Beverly Davis, assistant director of fair housing and human rights, before the investigation began.

Kung Fu in Dallas has since posted its dress code, which prohibits baggy clothing, gang-associated clothing and obscene emblems, among other things.

In a Feb. 9 statement, the bar hopes it can move on. “We made this decision in order to move forward without further proceedings, and in hopes of refocusing our full attention on providing a welcoming entertainment experience to the community,” the statement reads.

Kung Fu is required to pay two fees of $400 and receive deferred adjudication for 90 days, according to a city of Dallas memo. (Hat tip to the Dallas Observerfor reporting the news first.)

Kung Fu reps have also agreed to write letters of apology to Upshaw and Jesse Okiror, according to the city memo. At press time, Upshaw had not received his letter yet.

Upshaw feels like the case ended well, he told The Dallas Morning News. “From the very beginning, my entire goal was that I wanted them to acknowledge that what they were doing was in violation of the law,” he says.

“Anytime you can bring about change … it’s worth it,” he said. “It took a lot of time and effort. I believe it was worth it.”

If a single person could win the Grammy Awards, that honor goes to Sam Smith. The English crooner took home record of the year, song of the year and best new artist, leaving apparent shoo-ins such as Taylor Swift without a major award.

But plenty of non-award moments stole the stage at this year’s show. Here are some of the best memes celebrating those fantastic moments: